Alone Together: Love, Grief, and Comfort During the Time of Covid-19

Haupt (In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills) convened scores of her fellow writers for this remarkable anthology of responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. It addresses the lockdown from a range of experiences, perspectives, and formats, including poems, essays, and interviews, with some writers considering how to retain a sense of control over one’s own life, and others how to maintain a feeling of connection to others. In the poem “At Times Like This,” Nikki Giovanni asserts that, while grieving for those lost in the pandemic, “We measure our words/ Because we are/ Measuring a life,” and Devi S. Laskar’s “State of the Art, State of the Union” states that “Poetry in wartime is a luxury” and “a necessity.” Lisa Haines’s essay considers masks and asks “if we will ever see expressions again,” while Andrea King Collier finds comfort in the familiar ritual of grocery shopping (“the only thing I have control over”). Paulette Perhach reflects on bodily intimacy with her sensuous essay, “Skin,” while Sommer Browning and David Shields model remote intimacy with their playfully risqué message thread from a shared virtual viewing of Eyes Wide Shut. Anyone who has weathered the past few months will find something in here that speaks to them. Agent: Linda Migalti, Susan Schulman & Assoc. (Sept.)